Our World Rewritten
by The Wolf That Got Away
Summary: Can you imagine what it would feel like if Monster Hunter franchise suddenly becomes real... but nobody remembers the games because they got erased from our collective mind? I do. You'd be lucky to even read about it.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I woke up with a sharp breath.

I could feel fresh air filling my lungs. It breathed a sense of awareness into my mind, and with it... pain.

Pain on my shoulder, pain on my leg, pain all over my body, as if I was hit by a car. Whether any of them was fractured, I couldn't determine. I just hoped that a passerby or two would come to my aid. If I truly was a victim of a hit-and-run accident, then I would be in grave danger.

I could scarcely think of what had caused me this much pain.

There was only a gentle breeze in the air; no voice from panicking witnesses, no ambulance sirens, nothing. I stretched my neck little by little to just in case my head or neck got injured too. All felt good, so I continued to twitch and wiggle parts of my body. I let my eyes grew accustomed to the cloudy sky hanging over me as I came to my senses. I tried to speak, but my voice sounded dry. I then realized how thirsty I was.

I looked down to find my right side largely unharmed. My left side, especially my left shoulder and left leg were covered in tight bandages. Did someone get me out of trouble, only to leave me unattended? I thought so. Faded bloodstains littered the bandages that were visible under my torn jacket sleeve and pant leg. Either my rescuer managed to save me in time or my injuries were not that bad. They should've sent me to a hospital right away instead of abandoning me here, wherever this place was.

I moved my right hand to help me sit up, but my fingers were tightly clutched around something shiny.

Wait... not shiny, but reflective.

My eyes widened when I saw a sword, a large broadsword, grasped firmly in my hand. It was roughly as tall as me. Where did it come from? Was I the owner of the sword? It's impossible. I never owned anything like it.

Was I a burglar?

I bet that thing explained why I was battered and bruised. A mob must've caught me in the act of theft and beat me up so badly they actually left me to die. A sword this tall might have belonged to a museum. Come to think of it, my mind told me that I did visit a museum... with friends...

"_Dammit, they're coming through the windows!_"

"_Grab a weapon and take cover! We'll try to hold them at bay!_"

"_Get to the East Wing and barricade the door! Find the emergency exit and get out of here!_"

"_What are you going to do?!_"

Wait, what? Why did I hear voices? My breathing became labored as I shook my head in panic. What happened to me? I took deep breaths to calm myself.

I decided to get up and find bearings of my situation, but with my wounded leg, I had to gently support my weight with the sword. I slowly came to the realization that not only I was half-covered in bandages, but I was also starving, stranded alone, shivering from cold air, and my clothes were torn and dirt-stained. I'd need to find shelter and fresh clothes if I want to survive. Right now I stood next to a lone dirt road winding across a green pasture.

There's something dead which resembled a bird laid across the dirt road. Except it was big, yellow, and covered in sharp scales. Squinting my eyes to examine it, I witnessed long gaping wounds lining the bird-thing's wings and head. Oh, ok, so I supposed I was being chased by the creature and I slashed it with my sword until we both fell.

I just happened to be the lucky one here.

A backpack laid a little further from where I was laid. If I remember correctly, I stole that backpack too along with its contents, as when I limped to reach and open it, I found a stash of canned bread, a portable radio, a flashlight with spare batteries, and a first-aid kit. The kit was predictably empty, likely used by my rescuer when they saved my life.

In the distance, I saw signs of human settlement; a village or small town where I could hopefully seek help. Taking the backpack with me, I began to make my way towards the settlement, taking care to not put too much pressure on my messed up leg.

After some twenty minutes of hobbling on the dirt path, I reached the village shouting for anyone who'd listen to help me. But it was useless.

The village's empty.

Cars and other vehicles were left here and there collecting thick dust, houses were barricaded or otherwise neglected, piles of garbage could be seen spilled on the village road, and a few dead animals were laid down on the road, either just recently dead or already rotting.

Wait a minute, animals? I thought so, too, but these bodies didn't look like the kind of animals you'd see in your backyard or zoos...

I carefully approached one of the dead animals. As I got closer, I could make out some details of the corpse, including a snake-like head on a four-legged squirrel-like torso, and it was big. It had light blue avian feathers covering reptilian scales, but the animal was definitely not a bird. What the fuck was it? This thing must be at least 7 meters long if not more. The scars on its corpse seemed to imply that it died via blunt force, either by being hit by a car or a person struck it with a hammer.

I never saw anything like it, but something in my mind continuously nagged me, as if telling that I know what it was. I just could barely remember what...

"_Damn, that's a big Tobi Kadachi. I'm glad it's not hostile._"

"_Yeah. It would be nice if we can tame and ride it somehow._"

"_Hah, you wish._"

Tobi... Kadachi?

Turning away from the dead animal, I weighed my options; I could continue looking for people in this lonely place at the cost of wearing myself down even more, or I could break into one of these empty houses and set up a temporary safe haven ala zombie apocalypse movies. I chose the latter since I'm so hungry.

Thankfully it didn't take too long to find a perfect house as my hideout. One house at the corner of the road looked clean and cozy, so I made my way there. It wasn't boarded up like the rest. Maybe its occupants were still inside? I doubt it, since the garage was in disarray, indicating that they already departed from the house.

A shrill roar from far away stopped me just as I reached the house's main door. I turned around to find out what made the horrible sound. Hopefully, it was nothing.

I saw a creature standing on the road I came from.

No, I didn't think it was any living creature...

Its black scales were so dark that I mistook it for a statue...

It stood on its hind limbs and spread its wings like a cobra would spread its hood...

Its eyes were... unnatural.

"_No, you idiot! You won't survive a Black Dragon like this!_"

"_Then what the hell are we supposed to do? Wait here until it eats us?_"

"_We got to find a way to sneak past it. Nobody ever survives fighting a Black Dragon head-on. _"

"_Easy for you to say, Luke._"

...Black Dragon?

Whatever the fuck that thing was, I was too busy staring back at its soulless, colorless eyes to see its chest glowing red. When I did, however, another roar echoed at the other end of the road. Another creature had set its sights on it. The other thing flew past me at high speed towards the black-scaled beast, almost instantaneously, but I saw bits of the new creature. Its horns were large and jagged. Its scales were black too, but spikier and sharper than the other beast. Its black spiky wings beat strongly as the new beast landed its front claws on the serpentine monster with the soulless eyes.

I was too dizzy and nauseous to watch them duking it out outside the village. As soon as I turned back, I yanked the main door open which was miraculously unlocked, blocked the door, fled to the house's bathroom once I located it, and vomited everything in my gut.

The screams of the two creatures fighting grew farther away as the sun gently set until I couldn't hear them anymore. I was never a really religious person, but there I found myself praying to God that the creatures wouldn't come back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It's been three days since I arrived here.

No signs of either the Alatreon or the Fatalis from before. I sincerely hoped they wouldn't return.

As I washed my face and neck in the abandoned house's bathroom, I could feel my memories slowly coming back to me one by one.

My name's Luke, I'm 20 years old, and I am a college kid from a less-known community college somewhere in Upstate New York that nobody ever bothered to find out. I dropped out of college and was ready to start a new life with my family when shit hit the fan.

The monster I fought before I lost consciousness was a Seregios. Damn thing got my shoulder and leg in bad shape, but I'm okay now. I had no idea what happened to the person who took care of my wounds before disappearing, but I hope they made it to safety. Whatever they did to my shoulder and leg somehow healed my injuries real quick, but it also put me in so much pain I actually passed out and lost my memories, albeit briefly. At least I was able to seek shelter without too much difficulty.

I stepped out of the bathroom to survey the house. All seemed good and judging from its condition, this house was left behind by its previous occupants roughly one day ago. I wondered if they brought essential belongings with them as I entered the kitchen and opened the cabinets. There were plenty of non-perishable foods left in there, as well as bottled water. Maybe the occupants really were preparing to make a run for it, but were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of monsters like everyone else and had to evacuate in a hurry. The dead Tobi-Kadachi I saw no far from the house seemed to support my thoughts.

My eyes fell on the broadsword that I stole from a museum during the mass panic. It's laid next to the sink and was stained in blood. I didn't know anything about maintaining a medieval weapon, but I assumed it needed some sharpening soon.

I left the kitchen and made my way into one of the bedrooms. Based on the relatively large size of the room, although stacked with paraphernalia such as action figures and sneaker collection, I assumed this must be the master bedroom. I might not want to admit it, but I took my sweet time searching for clean clothes, pretending that they were my own belongings. Since the owner probably wouldn't come back to the house, I thought it'd be fine if I took some of their Air Jordan sneakers for myself.

The only notable thing aside from the wall of sneakers in the bedroom was a set of gaming computers on the corner, complete with microphones and a headphone. Maybe the owner was a Youtuber of the sort?

It reminded me of the final days I had with my gaming friends.

I never thought it would end like this.

I sat on the stool in front of the computer, reminiscing the events that lead to the fall of our society.

It began circa June 2019 I think, when I was excitedly waiting for Capcom to release Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Most of my online buddies were bored and disillusioned by MonHun World's lack of worthwhile content and were pretty much ready to jump on the hate bandwagon. Only three of my friends were still hoping for the best in Iceborne. They were Jason, Will, and Lea, my hunting partners from Monster Hunter 4 onward. We paid no attention to those who called Iceborne as another glorified DLC filled with reskins of already existing monsters and held out hope that Iceborne will be the best DLC ever.

By the end of June, players were promised that a special bundle of collectibles for the game's 15th anniversary would be made available, including a new monster size comparison video.

That's when it happened.

One day, I turned on my PS4 to find my MonHun World file gone.

I couldn't believe my eyes. What the hell? How did the game disappear from my console?

I began checking my PS4 for any error in the system. There was no error whatsoever and no sign of data corruption. I then asked my mom and dad if they tampered with the console when I wasn't at home. They said no, they never touch my PS4 nor did they blocked my internet access.

Confused and angry, I texted my friends if they wanted to give me their Monster Hunter World file should they grew bored with it. The answers they gave me were the most chilling thing I ever read.

There was no such thing as Monster Hunter World. Capcom never developed a game with that name. Only an announcement that Generations Ultimate was made available for western players.

"_What are you talking about, mate?_"

"_Are you looking for the Monster Hunter Wiki?_"

"_I'm sorry, but are you asking about Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate?_"

Those were the replies I got. My heartbeat went faster as I read their answers one by one, claiming that the game I asked from them did not exist. How could this happen? What the fuck was going on here? I tried to convince myself that my friends were in denial because they hated the 5th generation so much that they would troll me over Twitter and Skype. I wish it was true, for when I checked Steam to download the game again, I couldn't find it at all, and extensive Google search availed me not in my quest. Monster Hunter World was gone. As if the game was literally erased from the face of the Earth.

The only person who noticed anything was wrong at all was Will, and he too was in confusion. We traded words with each other trying to figure out what to do.

My stomach rumbled. Damn it, I thought, I forgot to eat today. I was too busy scouting the neighborhood for supplies and possible survivors for the last two days.

Nighttime was approaching.

I made my way down to the kitchen again. Along the way, I carefully peeked out of the windows, checking whether a monster was waiting outside the house. I decided to keep the house half-lit as I cooked some instant porridge just in case the light and noise attracted some of them.

Thin barkings from outside the house nearly made me dropped my porridge. Grabbing my sword while running to the nearest window, I braced myself against possible intruders, only to find that a group of bird wyverns was fighting over the dead Tobi-Kadachi. I couldn't see clearly whether they were Barnos or Mernos, but as long as they didn't try to invade my hideout, there's nothing to worry about.

I sat back and ate my dinner in silence. God, when was the last time I had dinner with my family? Where was the time when my buddies and I shared stories and laughter during dinner? My hand absentmindedly searched for my smartphone in my pocket, but then I remembered I lost it when the Seregios attacked. Crap, now I'm so utterly screwed. I hoped the computer still had power and internet connection because, without any means of communication, I'd be totally isolated from help.

That brought me to another set of memories.

It was around July and August 2019 when I realized that something terrible was coming our way. I was walking home from a store, I think, when my phone rang. I picked it up to find Will yelling at me in panic. I asked him to calm down and explain what happened that made him so scared.

Will said he was asking for a guide on playing MonHun Generations Ultimate on his chat group when his online partners asked what he was talking about. He then clued into their reaction and checked his console. All iterations of Monster Hunter's 4th generation were gone from their gaming consoles, including Generations Ultimate, and it occurred everywhere in the world. Some people, especially casual gamers, were convinced that Monster Hunter never got any new entry after the 3rd generation, but for us avid MonHun fans, it was utter bullshit. Whatever this phenomenon was, it retroactively changed people's minds... and it was getting worse.

I ran back to my house, leaving my phone with its speaker on. On the phone, Will was still blabbering; he told me that for every gamer who asked where their Monster Hunter game went, thousands of other gamers would brush it off as false memory. Even Capcom's official website only listed Monster Hunter Tri as the most recent installment to the franchise, he said. The only proof of the games' existence were non-official materials posted in online forums by dedicated fans. Somehow those stayed where they were.

I turned my PS4 on with feelings of dread.

My MonHun Generations Ultimate file was gone too, just like what happened to Will and many others.

It wasn't 'stolen-by-thieves' gone, but 'never-even-existed-in-the-first-place' gone.

After weeks of investigating the case via online chat groups with no definite resolution, I made up my mind. I planned to see either Jason or Lea just in case they understood this mystery more than I did. One night, I took a shortcut through a small park illuminated by street lights to get to their residences quickly. That's when I saw something that I knew shouldn't have existed.

An Alatreon, or something that greatly resembled an Alatreon, standing proudly on a large cliff overlooking the park I passed through. I didn't know whether I pissed my pants or not, but I did run back home and texted all three of my buddies via twitter to stay at home for the night and never go out until sunrise.

I didn't care if they called me nuts. I just wanted to be safe and sane.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The next few days were kind of tiring, honestly.

I've got at least three or four objectives to fulfill. Considering that no one would come to the abandoned village, gathering supplies and commandeering a vehicle to get out of here rested at the top of my to-do list.

First, I went looking for a map of the area I was currently in. The safe house didn't have a map detailed enough for my taste, so I went out to other empty houses, doing my best to spy them first before breaking in. If there were people hiding inside, the last thing I wanted them to do was for them to blow my head off.

After searching five houses in the vicinity, looting them of useful things like a handgun, more bottled water, and radio batteries, I finally found a map. From what I could make out of it, this village lies somewhere quite close to the Canadian border, between two large towns that were reachable by following one of the highways at the north of the village. Walking down the highways was almost certainly out of the question since there wouldn't be another place to rest once I stepped out of the village, which was why I needed to find a working vehicle, a car if the circumstances allowed me to steal one.

The second objective tied directly to the first one. I got to find a car.

The good news was that there were so many neglected cars all over the place. There were muscle cars from the 1990s, newer car models circa 2010s, small trucks with reinforced doors and windows, and a few big motorcycles from Harley-Davidson brand judging from their massive bulk. I sure wanted to look cool by driving one of those like a badass gangster from post-apocalyptic movies, but it wouldn't be practical. The bad news was that not all of them had sufficient gas to take me through the highways. If the map was telling the truth, the closest settlement would probably be 6 miles away. Most of the cars here could only go as far as 2 miles if not a little more, therefore I had to do the hard work of dumping as much petroleum as I could find into a particularly nice looking Audi. This one that I found wasn't a new car per se, but it did start quite smoothly, and I wished it could lead me to a secure place without breaking down at the most inopportune moment.

Having a map and a car was a good beginning for me. The third problem was the radio in my backpack.

I should've known the damn thing was half broken.

It took me almost one full day of repairing it even with a guide written on paper. Thankfully I had plenty of spare batteries to use if the old ones went out. I was so obsessed with fixing the radio that I almost forgot to feed myself. Of course, I was isolated from the outside world for days, maybe a week or so, that's why I was desperate to hear any news to let me know that I was not alone. And should either or both of the Black Dragons came back to finish me off, I'd at least knew that there could be other people out there suffering in danger worse than mine.

By some sheer amount of luck, I managed to repair the radio. Turning it on allowed me to hear how the rest of the world was faring.

"_Casualties in South Africa grow by the thousands as more and more unidentified creatures, both mammalian and reptilian, attacked major urban settlements..._"

"_Citizens in Brazil, Mexico, and the Carribean islands have sent reports to their respective governments that their apartments are being infested by all kinds of huge insect species they never heard of. In certain reports, the senders wrote how the insects aggressively attacked them and drove them out..._"

"_In another news, a series of videos were recently broadcasted from New Delhi, India, chronicling the appearance of animals that allegedly resembles flying dinosaurs which are now making their nests on the citizens' sacred temples..._"

"_Many Indonesians are posting viral videos on Youtube, Facebook, and WhatsApp about large sea dragons that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. These sea dragons are flocking around the island of Bali, claiming it as their turf as of this announcement..._"

"_Members of the British Parliament have been successfully evacuated from London as several pairs of red and green-scaled winged creatures were seen fighting right above the Parliament Building..._"

Well, crap. I guess the world was pretty much fucked.

I had no idea what monsters were sieging South Africa, but from the vague descriptions of the monsters the radio announcer spoke of, I guessed them to be Yian Garuga, Odogaron, and one type of creature that seemingly did not exist in the games. The insects that infested those Latin Americans nations were either Altaroths, Vespoids, or Hornetaurs, but I wasn't 100 percent sure since the announcer failed to specify the physical appearance of the insect monsters. In India's case, I surmised the monsters which crowded their temples to be Remobras, Barnos, Mernos, Raphinos, Yian Kutkus... well, essentially every small and nonchalant wingdrakes or bird wyverns that you encountered in the games. I thought of them as 'nonchalant' as the announcer didn't say anything about those creatures attacking anybody or endangering them in any capacity. Well, not directly I assume.

The sea dragons in Indonesia were most likely Lagiacrus. Fitting, since Bali was surrounded by sea, and with so many open shorelines on the island, the Lagiacrus pod might as well be in their natural habitat. I could be wrong, though, but the island's population might eventually begin worshipping the monsters as reincarnated people... either them or the Indians in New Delhi with their wingdrakes. As for Britain, Rathaloses and Rathians were my top guess as the announcer clearly mentioned their scale colors, red and green respectively. So far the Raths were not reported to have caused casualties, but as time moves on...

The fact that Earth hadn't resorted to nuclear weaponry to eradicate the monsters made me proud of humanity as a whole. But the passage of time, coupled with growing conflicts between man and monsters, would surely change my opinion.

If I may speak of the fourth and last problem, that'd be looking for signs of my friends and family.

Probably the hardest task I had to fulfill.

That one objective clouded my thoughts as I went back to the safe house for the day. I was barely aware of what I was doing; storing my loot and equipment in a corner, locking all possible entrances as the sun gently set, and cooking myself a plate of smoked tuna.

Once I was done, I cleaned up the dish and brought my belongings to the master bedroom. I took off my sneakers and lay down on the bed, thinking about my experiences.

Last time I talked about an Alatreon in our park, yeah? Well, when morning came, I took the long road to reach my friends and told them what I saw the night before. Will and Jason stared at me like I was crazy, but Lea gave me a look of sympathy.

She disappeared into her bathroom after I was done ranting. She came out a moment later, bringing with her a dark plastic bag. We asked about its content, only for her to dump it out on a coffee table in front of us.

It was a Vespoid.

An actual Vespoid, with a long steak knife protruding from its head.

Jason ran into Lea's bathroom to throw up as Will and I stared in shock. I heard Will muttering 'this can't be real' over and over. I heard Jason shouting profanities at the sight of the dead monster. I heard Lea telling her close encounter with the Vespoid with a shaky voice. She was angry, that's for sure, but she was scared for her life too. At that point, any rational thoughts we had in our heads went out like a candle; a series of video games was about to become real, and we were not prepared for it.

At Lea's demand, we pooled our knowledge and resources to find ways to survive the oncoming reality shift. We sought out methods of becoming survivalists from the internet, all the while praying and hoping that the shift could be prevented somehow, someday. We kept an eye on those who were aware of the recent events, like our fellow MonHun fans who had their memories intact, and alerted them of what had transpired. Nearly all of them had had close encounters with MonHun creatures coming to real life as Lea did, or simply witnessed one and went into hiding as I did. Sadly, only half of them were willing to listen to our advice to learn survivalism as soon as possible. If only they had any idea of what was coming...

A week later, one of Will's acquaintances e-mailed the four of us.

The e-mail said that Monster Hunter's 2nd generation games were gone from existence, just like the previous ones.

The very first game of the series was all that's left of the franchise.

Time was running out for us.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Thanks, Luke."

"For what?"

"For saving my life."

"Nah, you don't have to thank me for anything, really. Now take your shoe off."

Exactly 24 hours after my previous endeavors, I was geared up and ready to drive away from this place. I loaded as many tools and supplies as I could into the car, making sure that they wouldn't clog up valuable space inside it.

Some half an hour as I began my final preparations, A scream echoed from the west of the village. It was a male's voice and he's in dire need of assistance. To be honest, I was kind of torn up between wanting to save the guy in distress and wanting to leave the place ASAP. Eventually, my sense of heroism flared up and I bolted off in search of the guy. My broadsword, clean and sharpened, was all I had in hand since I didn't think to carry extra supplies on my person. My choice of playing hero was... to put it mildly, the best choice that I made in my life.

It was Will, and he was attacked by an Arzuros. The ursid monster from the 3rd generation of Monster Hunter franchise was savagely biting into his leg. As I ran closer readying myself to stab the beast in the head, my vision fell upon the Arzuros' broken teeth and damaged front limbs, and an object which bore similarities to a jury-rigged bowgun. Will must've tried to fight off the monster using that bowgun and flee to a protected place before the creature pinned him down. I had to stop it from murdering my friend... my only connection to the outside world.

I let momentum carry my sword as I swung it to the beast's right eye.

The Arzuros yelped in pain and horror as one of its eyes was gone. But I wasn't done yet. I gave it two more slashes; one to its throat and another one to its neck. I was hoping to break the beast's head, maybe even decapitating it, but Will's condition compelled me to just drive the Arzuros away.

Sensing that it was very close to being killed, the ursid monster released Will's leg from its jaws and retreated hastily. As soon as it disappeared from the premises, I knelt down to see how my friend was faring.

He wasn't in very good health. His lips were dry and cracked from thirst. His eyes had dark circles under them, a sign of lack of sleep. His right ankle, the one the Arzuros bit, was sprained and bleeding although not too much.

"Thanks for the bandage, mate. You sure know a lot about first aid."

"Don't thank me, buddy. Thank Lea instead. She knew her stuff really well."

"Alright. How long are we staying here anyway?"

"Since you have a sprained ankle, I think we can stay here for a day or two. I was going to drive us out right away, but with your condition..."

"It sucks, doesn't it, Luke?"

"Yeah, it does. Keep your shoe off your bad foot, ok?"

I carried Will on my shoulders to the safe house and patched him up as best as I possibly could. Will passed out for a while as I treated his wounds. I was rummaging over his backpack to see if he had any first-aid kit on him when my eyes caught a glint of something shiny. I took it out and held in under the light.

At first glance, I convinced myself that it's a bottle of alcohol, a rather strong one if the smell was right. But it was also colored greenish-yellow, reminding me of the ancient potion item in the games. Just where the fuck did he find this? I had the weirdest feeling that it was a type of strong drug so I pour some of its content into Will's mouth. To my amazement, it did seem to be a MonHun potion as Will's physical condition improved within four hours. Actually, it came with two side effects; heavy breathing and sweating. I figured that my friend would appreciate some spare clothing, so I went and took more garments from the bedroom's wardrobe.

When he finally woke up, the first things he asked from me were food and water. Good thing I got them covered. Then we proceeded to swap stories. I spoke first, telling him of my encounter with the Black Dragons and my brief amnesia.

"Do you have knowledge of gun modification?"

"I do, though I'm not the type of guy to brag about it."

"Why is that?"

"Most of my experience in gunsmith came from my dad. Do you see that bowgun of mine? I jury-rigged it from a hunting rifle. It's not very reliable for actual monster hunting, but it does deal piercing damage to monsters, provided you aim it at the right spot."

"What bullet type do you use for the bowgun? Standard rifle ammo?"

"Because the gun's old barrel had been changed to a longer one, I was able to fit sniper rifle bullets into it. So far my gun stays good despite the frequent modification. As I said, it's not designed for extended use."

"That's some mad skills you have there!"

"Nah, let's not give praises to each other too quickly. The rifle was stolen from a gun shop."

Of course, he stole almost all of his stuff just like me. You see, the monsters that materialized in our world appeared in wildlands at best and rural areas at worst as far as Will could tell me. With rapid urbanization occurring left and right on Earth, the monsters were living on a borrowed time until some hikers stumbled over their temporary nests. Add widespread environmental degradation, deforestation, and the fact that metropolitan areas were always full of bright lights and noises into the mix. The result was predictable; the monsters, particularly the nasty ones like the Raths, were drawn to the big cities in the hopes of claiming them as new nests and feeding grounds. Ok, at this point not all major cities were besieged by monsters, but in time they would eventually fell victim to sudden mass migration. Remember about MonHun 4 Ultimate and the Seregios migration? Will didn't need to remind me of it.

As for the elder dragons, Will got his news from multiple sources. Only a few of them were considered reliable. The likes of Teostra, Kushala, and Velkhana were reportedly settling in just fine around treacherous places such as volcanic regions or steep canyons. While their mere presence creates apparent disruptions to our ecosystems like sudden temperature changes, they were mostly small and largely contained within their immediate locations. Others like Chameleos and Nakarkos had more noticeable effects on our ecosystems, with the former spreading poison gas which got carried by wind currents and the latter turning whole areas into death zones full of the remains of its victims.

Will got a map of the United States on his person too. It looked like the map that I owned, but he seemed to have spent plenty of time drawing and writing on his map. Cities were crossed out and labeled 'no-go' or 'dangerous', but some were circled and labeled 'possible safe haven'. Airports and harbors were not spared from his meticulous handwriting, as were bus stations and underground subways.

He told me that certain towns and interstate highways were crossed out too, citing how they were blockaded by people, preventing access to other states that might still be free of monsters. My mind dejectedly wrote a list of possible bastards who could've done this. Corrupt politicians, violent hate groups, doomsday cults, and paranoid rural folks were all that I thought of.

As of today, we still hadn't approached the topic of the Black Dragons.

Will seemingly desired to talk more about it, but I had my doubts.

I wonder if this had anything to do with our missing friends? I asked him about the whereabouts of Jason and Lea, but when I dropped their names, Will wouldn't look at me.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Listen, I... I wanted to talk to you about the Fatalis."

"Oh God, I thought we're all too scared to even speak its name. I don't know if I want to jinx us both by saying anything about it."

"Exactly! Remember that time when you said we can't go toe-to-toe against it back in New York, Luke?"

"Please don't remind me, Will. Better yet, don't give me hope that Jason and Lea made it out alive, even though you still had communication with them for a week after escaping the Fatalis."

"...You're afraid that they never truly made it?"

"Yeah."

There we were, Will and I, having some conversation as we took the Audi, loaded with as many necessities as we could carry, and drove out before the wounded Arzuros or some other creature desired to return to the safe house that we had departed. We were driving on the interstate highway for hours now, hoping to reach Canada without being pursued by anything or anyone. As Will himself had noted, there were quite a number of roads that were inaccessible as we carried on. Most of them were clogged with abandoned cars and trucks. Some were intentionally blocked by various roadblocks, guarded by people with guns. None of them were policemen or soldiers, however. Others simply had lots of debris littering them.

From the travel speed which we kept at the moment, we should arrive at the closest border check by late afternoon. Once in a while, we would spot some Kelbi or Moofah grazing on the vast green plains around us, mingling themselves amongst the wild deers or sheep in our world. Once we saw a glimpse of a Rathalos flying in the sky with no care.

Will and I occasionally picked up our sporadic conversation. Namely, the day when Monster Hunter games truly were gone.

The day when the monsters themselves finally materialized in our world in all their glory.

It was on October 10, 2019, when I woke up in the morning to find the road in front of my house burning.

People were shouting, panicking, trying to get away from something. I was still groggy, lazily stumbling my way to the bathroom that I failed to notice my phone was overflowing with messages. By the time I walked out, the noises outside became steadily quieter, replaced by cat-like hissing. I opened my phone to find my friends texting about the monsters' appearance which jolted my mind right then. How could I forget about it?! I mentally kicked myself as I ran to the nearest window as if expecting an animal crashing through it. I looked outside to see some wide-scale rioting and chaos; at one end of the road, people were flocking together to run from something. They didn't even bother to take their vehicles with them. I then looked at the other end of the road...

A pair of Nargacugas were feasting on several dead people on the road. My heart skipped a beat as I saw them... and those poor people. They must've been trampled by the mob during the mass panic.

I remembered having my heart pounding in my chest as I calculated my chances of surviving an encounter like that. I could try to make a mad dash for survival, but the Nargacugas would be attracted to me and give chase. Or I could try to climb over the wall in my house's backyard and sneak past them, but only if the house at the other side of the wall was unoccupied and unlocked by its residents.

I chose the latter.

People were already departing the block en masse while I was still stuck alone in my house. I typed on my phone, telling my friends to not call me until I managed to find somewhere safe to do so. I made my escape rather noisily, attempting to climb the wall by jumping on stacked objects, which attracted the creatures' sensitive ears. Luckily, I successfully climbed it in time and landed perfectly on the other side without breaking my leg or anything. Behind the wall, I could faintly hear the pseudo-flying wyverns smashed down my house's front door in their search of me.

That other house I landed in had its front door left wide open; maybe the occupants fled the house with the others earlier. The black-furred wyverns did not notice my escape after all. I made my way across the road, trying to catch up to those who were still lagging behind. I called my parents to know where they were. Unfortunately, all my calls ended up in their mailbox, and until this day I have no idea what happened to them. And thus began my new life, moving from one shelter to another either with my friends or by myself, carrying only the clothes on my back, my smartphone, and whatever items I scrounged up in my journey. I even lost the memories of my mundane life one by one as time passed.

"Do you remember the day when it started? About me and the Nargacugas in my house?"

"Man, you were lucky to get out in one piece. Lea yelled at me for not taking my car to your place, but after you told us about the Nargacuga pair, she finally stopped and decided to pick you up herself."

"Yeah. It would be better if I didn't go to sleep while drunk." Will rolled his eyes at my words.

"That's what happened to Jason, too. He got piss drunk the night before, and when he woke up, the Fatalis was in the process of flattening his block."

"Hot damn. He was really lucky. Had the Fatalis chose to linger around a little longer..."

"Speaking of the Fatalis, why did it leave his residential block only to come back and single us out?" I then rolled my eyes at his question

"I don't know, Will. Perhaps it mistook the four of us as hunters or something because we were standing together? Maybe it remembered how the game works with the four hunters limit in each group and somehow decided we're fair game for it?"

"Welp, that could work. And how about the Alatreon? So far there seems to be only one of its kind."

I shook my head at his question, not knowing what to say.

I found myself questioning that too. Specifically, why did the Fatalis went out of its way to single out certain people? What did we have on our person that earned its attention? And why did this particular Alatreon frequently popped out just in time to save us from the Fatalis, seemingly knew when and where we would be attacked by it?

The first skirmish took place in Lea's apartment. Her place was almost untouched by the carnage that plagued many places worldwide, therefore we reached an unspoken agreement to use her apartment as a temporary refuge until we could figure out what to do next. The tentative feeling of security lasted for roughly five days before the Fatalis arrived there one night. We were watching breaking news on television, raptly listening as news anchors chronicled the mass appearance of creatures from a video game franchise that 80% of the world's population had forgotten, unaware that the Black Dragon was hunting down homeless people to eat. We and the rest of the apartment's residents became aware of it after listening to one too many screams echoing from the streets, and by the time we ran out of Lea's apartment to see what happened on the streets, the Fatalis coincidentally set its sight upon us.

We ran back inside. The other residents were scratching their heads at the sight of our shrieking selves until they witnessed a long-bodied monster with black scales charging right at us. Then they too screamed their heads off.

It smashed its way into the building's main hall just so that it could eat us, pummeling through the terrified crowd like they were nothing, becoming distracted only when small Jaggi-like monsters gained its attention. We were left stunned and terrorized even after it walked away.

While Lea's apartment was spared from its brief rampage, she declared that we should be on the move until we found somewhere we could hole up in.

Jason's family's house, Will's dusty workshop, a dingy minimarket, a cabin in the woods, and finally a gas station in the middle of nowhere. We changed our safe houses once in a month or so. We were even tempted to let other people enter our safe houses, but after a mentally-disturbed gamer broke into Jason's place one night to steal stuff, we became cautious toward strangers. Whenever we spotted the Fatalis' telltale signs like shrill roars in the distance or a long, dark shadow moving in the clouds, we took it as a sign to pack up and evacuate.

The aforementioned Alatreon saved our asses twice. The first time, the minimarket we used to hunker down was besieged by two factions; one is a group of violent Neo-Nazis with shotguns and rifles clashing against a group of 100 civilians who arrived there first. We were able to identify some soldiers in army fatigues trying their best to defuse the situation nonlethally. Obviously, they didn't make it as the Neo-Nazi's guns spoke louder than words. A gunfight ensued. I thought things couldn't get any worse as two Nargacugas jumped into the fray. Yes the same Nargas that stalked my house months ago. Just as the gunfight turned into bloodbath, the Alatreon appeared out of nowhere and swooped in to scare everyone, giving us time to escape. It perpetrated another accidental rescue on our behalf during our stay at the gas station. We had been keeping an eye just in case it would appear again. We did saw it flying around in a zigzagged pattern across hills, but never close enough to be seen clearly.

One day, when spring was just around the corner, a bus full of armed men came into the gas station.

At first, I thought they were going to rob us, but then the tallest guy with a revolver claimed to be in dire need of a hiding place. I asked why that was.

Cue the shrill roar.

Yeah, I know right? Bastards just had to lure the Fatalis to our safe house. He said the Black Dragon were stalking people at random, apparently toying with them before it ate them. And now it went after these guys.

One of his men was bleeding quite badly. All of us did our best to hide him before the Fatalis landed there. Silly me, no way we could hide from it once it smelled your blood. Sure enough, it broke the station's roof and slaughtered the men with guns. That was when I became separated from Will. Jason and Lea fled the scene together, nearly becoming Fatalis chow. The Alatreon, either sensing our distress or sensing the Fatalis' presence in its miles-long territory, came down to have a turf war with it.

Will and I were a little too busy reminiscing the details of that incident to realize that we had reached one of the border checks between the United States and Canada.

"Good God, Luke. Where are the border guards?"

"You're asking me?"

We exited the car to see devastation around us. The chainlink fence that separated our country with Canada was torn down. The gate was savagely smashed open, and surrounding it were piles upon piles of ruined tents with strewn objects. The place was eerily devoid of people.

"Shit must've hit the fan days before we got here."

"Yeah. I bet these tents belonged to people who ran away from the monsters to Canada. Who could've done this?" I mournfully asked.

"I'll give you a better question; where are all the bodies? Did a monster eat them or did they got evacuated first?"

I was going to voice my speculation when my sneaker nudged something on the ground. There was an object which glinted ever so subtly in the setting sun's glow. I crouched to pick it up.

A smooth black scale was laid in my hand.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Sometimes I wondered if we were genuinely fucked up in our lives or this one Fatalis possessed an unbelievably wide territory.

It didn't help that the United States itself, as a landmass, is big, so much bigger than school or fiction led us to believe.

After the grisly discovery, we took greater caution as we continue traveling further into Canadian soil. I drove the Audi rather slowly now, making sure to keep an eye out for any sign of danger while scanning the lone asphalt path in front of us. If the Black Dragon did come here, it certainly failed to incinerate most of Canada since the land itself was fairly unharmed. Compared to the villages, towns, and cities we passed through in America, so far the local settlements we observed along the road looked relatively intact and inhabited to a degree. We wanted our next safe haven free of any straggler. I know, I was being unfriendly and xenophobic right now, but we had no idea how friendly the Canadians were at the moment.

Night had finally come.

We were getting quite sleepy and hungry when Will noticed one medium-sized cabin that seemed cozy. One of the cabin's lamps was on, indicating the presence of an occupant. I parked the car a little bit close to the cabin, glancing uncomfortably to Will every few seconds.

"Do you think anybody lives in there?"

"Who knows? Do you think they're friendly enough for us to bunk in there?"

"Only one way to find out."

I was kind of hoping that Will would be the one to knock on the cabin's door. He shook his head instead. I supposed I got to go to the cabin and do it myself, wishing nervously that I wouldn't be shot or worse.

I exited the car and made my way to the cabin's front door. The ground here felt rather wet and damp under my feet. Rain must have washed this locale, I thought as I walked at a normal pace to the building. I had to look normal in my mannerism or else the cabin owner might accuse us of something unscrupulous.

My hands were shaking ever so slightly as I got closer to the front door, I kid you not. I rapped the door's handle a little too loudly, I suppose, since Will gestured me to not make too much noise when I stared back at my car. I turned around just in time for a bald man in his 30s to open the cabin door with a wincing expression. His right hand held an object behind his back; a gun or a knife most likely. Did I somehow offend him? I hoped I did nothing wrong as I put a gentle smile on my face.

"Good evening, sir. My friend and I are Americans, and we are currently searching for our missing friends..." I began with my most polite tone.

"Your missing friends huh? If I were you, I won't go looking for them at night, boy. Just in case a Barioth or something got them..."

"Hold on. You know? You know about MonHun too?!"

The bald guy hesitated, "Umm, yes? Don't tell me you still remember...?"

"I do. My buddy Will does, too."

For a split second, I could see the bald guy's eyes widened. He scanned my face for a minute or so like a hawk, looking for telltale signs of a liar. Not long after, he relented and permitted us to take refuge in his cabin. By his direction, I was permitted to park the car in his makeshift garage at the back of his cabin and move some of our stuff into a spare bedroom near the garage. Will was excited to finally have somewhere warm to bunk in, but not me.

Our nervousness followed us into the man's dining room. He remained silent as he prepared a cup of tea for both Will and me. I was going to break the tense air between us, but I had no idea what to say.

"As soon as you mentioned MonHun, I knew I'm dealing with fellow survivors."

"Pardon me, sir? Fellow survivors?"

"That's what I call people who still remember the games by heart. And don't call me sir. Call me Rye."

"Alright, Rye. Can you tell us why you called us, and by extension, the dedicated fans as fellow survivors?"

"That's because they were aware of the incoming shitstorm. I'm not going to lie here, by the time Monster Hunter was reduced into a single game that people barely even play or recognize, we were all convinced some sort of apocalypse would do us all in. The specifics were not important; the effects it might have on our society were the main concern. Even the meekest players among us took it upon themselves to learn how to outlast disaster scenarios if only to save themselves."

Rye waved his hand to a wall on his left. That's when we saw a plethora of monster parts being hung like Christmas decorations. Not replicas of monster body parts, I tell you, but real organic parts like shells and horns. There was a medium-size Rathian tail, carapaces from neopterons like Hornetaurs and such, Anteka horns, Baggi horns, and several claws from monsters that I couldn't identify. This guy must be a full-time hunter, I thought. At the sight of a sword-and-shield set displayed next to those monster trophies, I felt myself feeling proud that somebody out there actually chose to embrace the life of a monster hunter! It's stupid, but it's true!

"Now, you two may have questions about how we are all doing or when can we go see those who follow in my footsteps, but I assume you are more interested in how the monsters materialize in our world. Care to know more?"

I glanced at Will, who was nodding eagerly at Rye's offer. I nodded too.

The man clapped his hands. "Alright, first things first! I'll start from the earliest of events. Do you remember when Monster Hunter World and its related information went missing?"

We nodded again.

"The very first man to report it was a female student from Harvard University. She was involved in a project, a top-secret project allegedly, to build a supercomputer. This girl was not a gamer at all, but she had heard enough about the franchise to want to play it. From what my sources, people who did an investigation into our predicament, could tell me, The college girl loaded a Monster Hunter file into that supercomputer, maybe hoping to test how strong the machine can be for gaming."

"Okay, so we're talking about a supercomputer now?!"

"All official information regarding that project simply listed it as an attempt to create some sort of high-tech computer. You know, some crazy stuff that can beat China-made products and all that."

"But deep down, it's all a lie."

Will and I glanced at each other again. We found this story impossible to believe, but then again, so were the monsters themselves.

"Yeah, sweet little lies our government frequently makes to hide how screwed up they all are. Theories ran rampant about what's really going on under the veil. You'll most often hear people connecting the project at Harvard to mind control machines, nanomachines, killer robots, teleportation technology, or even privacy-breaching malware. I personally subscribed to the teleportation tech idea, since there's no way that MonHun creatures can appear out of the blue in our world. Not without someone intentionally transporting them here. And that is what I suspected from that Harvard supercomputer project. Five years' worth of progress and nobody ever said anything about it beyond whispers. It was never about computers or malware or any gadget at all, I tell you! It was very, very likely an experiment to see if we can replicate a fictional object or concept into reality. Magic, superscience, call it whatever you want."

Rye stopped talking to give us a chance to absorb this new information. To be honest, he sounded like an intellectually-deprived conspiracy theorist, but things somehow began to click in my mind.

I recalled a memory where I begged my parents to let me go to Harvard. They disagreed as not only going to Harvard would cost my family a significant fortune, they feared that I could possibly become a victim of mass shooting. At first, I was too sulky to understand their reservations, but Rye's tale made me wonder if mom and dad caught wind of what was happening at the prestigious university...

If that was true, it means I just dodged a possible future full of blackmail and paranoia.

"That's a lot to take in." I muttered.

"Alright, let me guess. This college girl did not upload her Monster Hunter file into the machine willingly." Will said.

"No one knows for sure. All that was left in her diary was a simple statement; she said that she was going to test her game data on a new computer to see if she could play it. We all have our theories, but they are mostly unproven."

Will nodded again, drinking his tea while scratching his head.

"We are left bewildered until this day. Whatever the college students and their government-hired supervisors did, it wiped out our collective memory about the game franchise, which subsequently led to the monsters appearing here, in this world where none of them ever existed before. Only those who hold the games close to their hearts and minds were able to remember. Casual gamers and the like lost their memories of it and were convinced the games were never developed."

The man finished his tale with a deep breath.

As I sipped my tea, I find my head gradually becoming heavy from the onslaught of the new information. There were days when I would just sit in a corner and became lost in imagination. I'd think about the how's and why's of our world's current condition, but it barely ever crossed my mind to look after fringe stories that might possibly explain what we had experienced.

It seemed like Rye took notice of our growing weariness and implored us to take some rest.

I'd like to stay up until later, but he had a point.

Will was ready to sleep like a baby, but I was too skeptical to believe this cabin was safe from threat. I stayed up on my bunk mattress, unable to sleep until my brain finally stopped worrying.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Beating up Jaggis has never been so much fun, don't you think?"

"Last I heard, you hate them so much more than Konchus!"

There we were, beating up a pack of Jaggis that chose to make their turf a little too close to Rye's cabin. The SnS man heard a couple of yapping not too far away from the cabin early in the morning and went to investigate it.

We came along, our weapons in hand to make sure he didn't get into trouble, despite his disapproval.

We were right to worry about his wellbeing. This pack of Jaggis was about to establish a territory that's bordering too close to the man's cabin. Seeing how these theropod bird wyverns were highly aggressive and tend to pick fights with anyone, we agreed to work together in taking them all down. What was weird about them was the total absence of a Great Jaggi.

"Yeah, no. I tell you, Luke, Jaggis can be much better than Konchus if you can do the adept style dodging!"

"Right, who the hell in their right mind would -oops!" I got myself nearly jumped on by an overconfident Jaggi. I ducked away just in time as the Jaggi soared through the air and landed clumsily in front of me. Wasting no time, I immediately counterattacked it, giving the pesky beast two deep slashes with my sword. As it lay bleeding to death, I turned my attention to another Jaggi which cornered Will while he was reloading his gun. I ran at the monster and kicked it away before delivering a fatal stab to its chest. The Jaggi was flailing around even as I stabbed it, so Will had to knock it out using the butt of his bowgun.

Today was the fourth day of our life in Canada. Rye had given us permission to survey the neighboring locale for supplies and information. Sometimes we would go on foot, other times we had to take the car to reach our destination. If we had to drive, he did it sparingly as we have yet to ask where the nearest gas station was.

Oops, I almost got jumped again by another Jaggi. I dodged it and quickly close in on it to make a slash, but the damn thing dodged my attack. The Jaggi continued to evade me, forcing me to chase it, but a well-placed shot from Will's gun stopped it dead. I gave Will a thumbs-up and we moved to assist Rye, who'd taken down five Jaggis on his own and was still dealing with three more. I swung my sword at the nearest Jaggi, performing three successive slashes that the creature couldn't evade, while my friend shot the other Jaggi twice; once to the neck and once to the head. With two of them dead, Rye did a quick stab followed by shield bash to the remaining Jaggi, finally killing the annoying thing and the pack as a whole.

"Wow, good job, both of you," said Rye as he sheathed his sword.

"I'm just glad that you let us tag along."

"Yeah. We should do this again sometime later. Maybe on Friday?"

"Heh, sure thing, but only if a monster actually threatens us," Rye laughed at my suggestion, "In the meantime, let's gather them around and see if we can use the Jaggis for anything useful. Be careful not to soak your clothes with their blood."

So there were twelve Jaggis in total. Rye defeated six of them, while I got three kills, and Will got three as well. Unfortunately, there were only seven Jaggis that we could still salvage for materials; the rest were too damaged, save for their fairly sturdy claws that we decided to cut off to make the transport easier. Will offered to trek back to the cabin to fetch some fabrics to help us carry the corpses without being smeared in blood. Rye and I patrolled the surroundings, keeping an eye just in case a Rathalos wanted to steal our kill.

The trip back was uneventful. We immediately cleaned up the dead theropod bird wyverns and meticulously skinned them of their scales, claws, fangs, and frills. As we did our job as best as we could, Rye would explain what we could turn those body parts into. The scales were not very sturdy for armor, but they can be woven into gloves if combined with leather of good quality. The fangs and claws were sharp enough to be grafted only on blades or combat knives; Rye said that if you want to make larger swords, you ought to find your materials from bigger monsters. The frills, if crafted correctly, could be used as fishing bait. As for the rest of the body... well, let's not beat around the bush. Rye blatantly claimed that Jaggi meat was as good as chicken meat.

"Are you brave enough to eat real monster meat, buddy?"

"I'll do you better; how screwed up do you have to be to eat them on a daily basis?"

"C'mon, Luke, there's enough of 'em to feed us for a week! Plus, we don't have to pay for them!"

"Fuck, I guess you win this time."

Will was right... sort of. While we actually brought our own food stash, they were mostly canned foods of lesser quality. Soon or later they'd run out fairly quickly if we chose to rely on them. Having huntable monsters as a food source was a big bonus.

As for hunting equipment... I found myself forgetting our situation quite often, but we were not dressed in appropriate hunting gear for quite a long time. Aside from makeshift gauntlets, cheap kevlar vests, and a simple motorcycle helmet in Rye's case, we were all dressed like college kids in a mass rioting. Vulnerability to damage was definitely a thing. It's a surprise that we're still alive until now. We were either lucky to be able to not accumulate injuries or most of the monsters we fought were simply stupid.

We took an hour to skin the Jaggis of all valuable materials and another hour to clean up the rest of the carcasses. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and sharpening my sword, while Will and Rye set up a worktable to craft scaly Jaggi gloves and a pair of hunting blades for my buddy. His gun was very handy in monster hunting, yes, but remember that the gun relied on high-caliber bullets, and Will was running low on ammunition. With his new Jaggi dual blades, he'd have to get close and personal to fight monsters. That being said, since my sword was bigger than his blades, I got to deal more damage to monsters with the downside of moving slower than him.

I loved how this SnS guy was a great weapon designed, although his skill was limited to combat knives, daggers, and small paraphernalia.

"Alright, that should do it," Rye said after he was done with his Jaggi gloves. "Seeing how we rarely face monsters bigger than the pesky little dinosaurs, I believe our current equipment should be enough to keep us safe. If you guys want to craft bigger and better stuff, I'm afraid you'll have to search the neighboring towns and villages for smiths."

"That's fine, Rye. And thanks for the blades, by the way. They look great!"

"I'm very grateful for your help, Rye. I mean it. We don't know who else we can turn to if not for your kindness."

"We both mean it, Luke."

Rye nodded at our gesture of appreciation.

As night approached, we cleaned up any mess we left behind at the worktable. We had the garage locked up and barricaded so that nothing could breach it. Well, unless they breathe fireballs or something like that.

We were then gathering in preparation for dinner when my ears picked up yapping and screeches in the distance...

I instinctively walked to the nearest window in search of the animal which made the noise. At first, I heard the same type of barking and yapping that the Jaggis produced, but then once in a while, a louder, raspier barking would echo. My eyes widened when I realized that a Great Jaggi must be somewhere nearby. The screeches that interspersed with their barks were a little bit difficult to identify. I was not able to hear them clearly, but they were there. Whatever that thing was, it must've crossed paths with the Jaggi pack and clashed with them brutally.

I glanced aside as Rye and Will joined me to peek out of the window, worried that more monsters were coming and fighting near the cabin.

Rye and I voted to go out there and performend reconnaissance, while Will asserted the need to hunker down and hope that the monsters would go away if left at their own devices. He was out-voted 2 to 1, and so I took my sword and borrowed a head-mounted flashlight from Rye. The man also decided to go out as well. Will came too, out of worry that we might not be able to fight the monsters in the dark.

We silently made our way, doing our best to not step on branches or anything that might gave away our position.

When we found the source of the noises, it wasn't a pretty sight.

A pack of ten Jaggis, led by an angry Great Jaggi, squared off against a pack of twelve Jagras with their pot-bellied Great Jagras as the leader. Some of their members were already dead, but most were still alive and kicking, ready to fight to the bitter end.

The lights of our headlamps attracted both pack leaders. Fortunately for us, their pack members were too busy tearing each other out.

"Well, crap. We should've turned off our lights."

"We can worry about it later!"

At Rye's gesture, we unsheathed our weapons and charged at the big monsters.

Rye took on the Great Jaggi on his own, leaving the Great Jagras at my and Will's mercy. My sword tried to hack off the monster's round head, cutting through its lime green scales, but despite multiple bloody slash marks that it accumulated, the Great Jagras was not intimidated at all. Will used this battle to test his new dual blades, attacking the monster by striking its sides and tail. The Great Jagras was barely even scared as it lashed out in frustration. It clawed at us in retaliation, preventing us from attacking too frequently. I sensed and opening; the Great Jagras' tail was open to me. Without ado, I throusted my sword through the monster's tail, pinning it to the ground. Will proceeded to strike the tail until it came off, enraging the monster.

I then got an idea. I used myself as a bait. I intended to lure the Great Jagras so that it'd charge at me and hit a tree I was standing in front of, allowing my buddy and I to deliver a killing blow. The Great Jagras took my bait and came at my direction at high speed. But I jumped too early, and rather than hitting the tree, the beast accidentally charged right at the Great Jaggi!

You heard me right. The impact of its charge attack caused the two monsters to tumble down hard. Rye whistled, obviously impressed at our ingenuity. We used this moment to take them down for good. My sword and Will's blades relentlessly cut through the green beast's scales until blood pour through and the monster stopped resisting. At his gesture, I stepped back so Will could throw one blade at the Great Jaggi's chest, preventing it from getting up and allowing Rye to kill it, nearly decapitating the monster.

In our victory, we realize too late that the rest of the Jaggis and Jagras had stopped fighting each other and were now eyeing us.

"Oh, fuck."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"I think they're ticked off right now."

I knew that, Rye. Thank you very much.

Now that their pack leaders were dead, the Jaggis and Jagras seemed to have reached a truce. I saw it from their eyes which gleamed in the dark.

One Jaggi leaped to attack Rye. He evaded the lunge at the last second before countering the Jaggi, but the little beast ducked past his horizontal slash and rejoined its pack, barking in a jeering way.

One overeager Jagras charged forward, jaws open in preparation of tackling me down. I sidestepped it and impaled my sword straight into its chest. A second Jagras skittered rapidly in retaliation for its fallen packmate. I held my ground as Rye bashed it aside, giving me ample time to pierce the Jagras' gaping maw in one strike. As I yanked the sword free from its broken jaw, another Jagras came forth. It jumped right at me, forcing the three of us to scatter. The angry little Jagras quickly turned around to continue its assault, but I was faster and managed to swat the thing away in two hits. I watched it fell lifeless to the ground before turning my attention to Will, who was struggling with a Jaggi until he struck his blade to the creature's torso, once to the chest and twice to its stomach.

I helped him up as we braced ourselves to battle the remaining monsters.

That's when I witnessed a jeep convoy with bright lights

A flash of light blinded the three of us momentarily. When I finally regained my eyesight, the small monsters were running away in fright. Somehow these people in the jeeps were aware of our situation and interfered in time with their flash bomb.

I was going to ask them who they were as a familiar voice called out.

"Luke! Will! Oh my God, are you ok? Do you need help?!" Holy crap, it was Jason!

"Jason, is that you dude? Hot damn, I thought we've lost you a long time ago!"

"I'm still alive, thankfully. Man, am I glad to see you guys..."

"Is this a friend of yours?" Rye asked warily.

Will and I nodded, lowering our weapons so that Jason wouldn't feel endangered. I glanced behind him to see his fellow men and women lowering their guns as well. A person was steadily pointing a camera at us, I thought.

"These people here are monster hunters too, Luke. Well, not professional hunters, but a combination between army men, policemen, and people with experience in hunting big game," Jason explained. "We are currently patrolling this place. I guess we're lucky to meet you here."

"Where do you hole up in nowadays?"

"There's a special base northwest from here, designed to house dedicated hunters like us. If you want, you can join us and we'll tell you all we know about our new life."

Will and I agreed to join his band of hunters. Rye elected to stay behind as a solo hunter, instead.

We took several minutes to pack our belongings from Rye's cabin before driving away with the convoy. The solo hunter simply told us to stay safe and vigilant as he retreated inside his residence.

Jason was pretty chatty along the way. He spoke of how he found himself stranded in a wooded area after getting separated from us, becoming hungry and thirsty by the minute. He mentioned a group of survivors who saved his life while embarking on a long journey to reach the US-Canada border. Not long after, he and his group was picked up by the folks who ran this so-called hunter basecamp, or complex as he said it. Those people had years of wilderness survival skills that Jason frequently practiced lately, gradually inspiring him to try and form a band of monster hunters in order to get used to our new reality. I took my part in explaining my latest adventures to him and how I got Will out of a dangerous situation.

We asked him of Lea's whereabouts, only to be greeted with silence from Jason's part. He eventually opened up, quietly saying how Lea was mauled to death by an Arzuros.

We stopped speaking for the rest of the trip until we reached a large gate where the hunter's complex was.

I was fully aware that, just because I owned some monster hunting skills, it wouldn't instantly make me a star among these people, so I had to downplay my achievements if ever so slightly.

A healthy amount of suspicion was directed at me, mostly from security guards who saw me walking into the hunter's complex with a sword visible on my back. The presence of Jason and his team of monster hunters was the only reason the guards refrained from treating me like a terrorist. Regardless, I preferred not to push their nerves too far; they were already edgy as it was.

I and my buddy were taken to a spare room set up for interrogation. Not a harsh one, but an interrogation nonetheless. Our items were confiscated and stored in a nearby room.

"What have you been doing in the past six months?"

"Are you addicted to any form of recreational drugs or alcoholic drinks?"

"Did you participate in any criminal activity during your life in the US?"

"Do you possess any information that might threaten your safety or the safety of your friends and family members?"

Those were some of the questions the guards asked me. I was sure Will received the same kind of questions, even if the wording was different. Seeing that I was never a criminal, nor did I do anything remotely harmful to people or myself, I confidently answered their questions with no hesitation. I also opted to be straightforward; if I dance around the interrogation, the guards might declare me as an escaped inmate from an American prison and could potentially put me on thinner ice.

The men explained that they were also accepting refugees into the compound, and that they couldn't risk having criminals or terrorists living among them.

In the end, these uptight people decided that I was free from all suspicion, more or less, before making a deal. I was asked to volunteer for a special mission, an infiltration task to Kansas City in the Midwestern United States, despite not being a Kansas resident. Huh, apparently they all thought that I know more about America than they were just because I came from America. They kept the specifics of this offer a secret. I was about to ask, but then they ushered me to a medical bay, where Canadian doctors examined me for any sign of illness or malnourishment. The examination lasted for two hours until the two of us were cleared of all maladies.

Will and I were then given a spare makeshift bunk made from repurposed trailers. It looked nice, smelled clean, and although the bunk, along with the rest of the repurposed trailer cars, were guarded by soldiers carrying army rifles, we both felt safer than we did with Rye's cabin in the woods.

This better be right.

**-X-X-X-**

The following morning, I woke up earlier than Will. I used it as an excuse to flee to the bathroom before walking outside the bunk. I needed to know more about my immediate locate.

It was 7 o'clock in the morning.

I was feeling a little isolated being here, standing next to a bunch of foreigners that would shot me all kinds of weird looks just because I came from the US. It was already my and Will's second day here, and we better familiarize ourselves with this place, maybe initiate small talks with the refugees.

Just as I stepped out, a woman in military uniform approached me. Behind her were Jason and another guy who I recognized as one of the interrogators. Jason waved at me excitedly, while the woman took a more restrained appearance. I curiously waited for her to start talking.

"Good morning, we are planning to meet you inside, but I suppose this is fine. We are quite impressed with your hunting skills, Luke. Your friend here showed me the recording. Here, we have crafted you some tools from the Jagras' remains."

Right, I forgot that the convoy's members confiscated the dead Great Jagras and its little packmates. She appeared quite content with it, however.

"Thank you very much, ma'am, but I think you're a little too generous," I said as she handed over a brown box.

"Please, just call me Olivera, or Miss Olivera if you want to be polite."

"Alright then, Miss Olivera."

The woman and the unnamed man excused themselves from the area. Jason took it as a chance to talk to me.

Looking around, I just noticed that most people except the military men were still asleep in their bunks, so I chose to tell Jason everything I've been through. I told him about the Seregios, the Fatalis, saving Will's life and driving all the way to Canada, all of them including the deal that was struck on me. Jason kept telling me to just accept the offer and walk tall. Myself, on the other hand, felt like our Canadian neighbors were intentionally shoehorning American stereotypes upon us, if only as an amusement. Either he already knew about the deal or he's pretending to not dwell too much on it.

"C'mon, Luke. It's not that bad. Compared to most of these guys, we actually have a decent experience when it comes to monster hunting!"

"Yeah, well, I feel like they're going to throw us to the lions, or should I say Black Dragons, with zero chance of survival. I know we'll be issued some good equipment, but still..."

"Let's not get too uppity about our fate now. Alright, buddy?"

"If you say so, Jason."

"Oh, by the way, let Willy know that he's invited too, ok?"

"Leave it to me."

The rest of the day flew by with no incident for me.

Between 6 to 7 in the evening, Will and I were summoned to a large meeting. We could make out hundreds of other people walking beside us. Fellow conscripts, I thought calmly as we entered a makeshift meeting room a little further into the complex.

I paid no attention at first, choosing to play with my smartphone until an old, grizzled man began to cough, silencing the chatty audience on my sides. He then started speaking straight to the point.

For the next half an hour, I watched intently as a projector showed us what this special mission was all about; a rescue attempt to evacuate hundreds of civilians, who were all trapped in a monster turf in Kansas City. Except it was no mere danger zone. The place the speaking man showed us was the turf of the Fatalis trio. You all heard him, the damn place was owned by the Black, the Crimson, and the White. If this wasn't an out-and-out suicide mission, I didn't know what was. As the old spokesperson said a moment later, they had 300 people or so to evacuate. Quite a few of those people were Canadian immigrant workers and college kids studying abroad in the United States. Nightmare fuel at its fullest.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am fully aware that not all of you agreed to follow through with this. I'm sure some of you might be asking 'why don't we just let the Americans and their White House do all the hard work?' Well, the shortest answer is; they won't. The US government is now too focused on preserving its own existence. They'd rather save their own politicians and businessmen rather than doing their best to move innocent civilians elsewhere safe. And remember, among the trapped survivors are our own people, thus putting Canada at a greater dilemma. Will we save our populace, even if we have to illegally cross the border to do so, or will we abandon them to their fate, and risk being called weak and cowardly?"

Whispers of disagreement echoed in the room before being silenced by the man's loud clapping.

I personally sympathized with those overseas college students. I was a former college kid, after all. A meaningful glance between Will, Jason, and me was all that it took to convince us to stay.

The spokesperson continued speaking.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's important that we don't draw unnecessary attention from the Elder Dragons. I can't stress this enough; do not play hero during the mission under any circumstances, even if you have the best of intentions! It is in your best interest to keep yourselves, the missing survivors, and your compatriots alive, and we can only do that if we stick to the rules. Understand?"

A chorus of "understood", "yes sir", and hums of agreements were heard clearly. The spokesperson nodded in satisfaction and continued speaking about personnel preparation. To be specific, he mentioned the details of what we could and could not carry.

For me personally, I only had a small selection of tools to take with me during the rescue operation. Some were standard stuff like first aid kit and a portable flashlight. Weapons that were available for me were my old sword, the newly-crafted Jagras sword, A Glock type handgun, and at least two types of sniper rifles that were often used by the Canadian Royal Army. While I knew the basics of firing a gun, a hunting rifle at that, I'd rather not rely on those rifles too much. Will was the better gunner, not me, so I let him took one sniper rifle. Armor-wise, I found myself quite pleased with my equipment. I got my Jaggi gloves mixed and extended with Jagras scale gauntlets, some sort of futuristic kevlar vest made from Rathian scales that I recently bought, and these were combined with modern tactical outfit issued by the higher-up to the others; black tactical jacket, black cargo pants, and black army boots.

All members of this operation were issued helmets with augmented radio comms device. The idea behind the radio was that, since our mission would take place in an Elder Dragon turf, there could be a possibility of their innate power interfering with our communication system. We ought to have the means to counter this passive hazard.

Any personal belongings like cellphones, pets, trinkets, or anything that produces light, noise, or distraction in every conceivable manner must be left behind in your bunk at the complex, no exception. Once we hit ground zero, there'd be no more calling loved ones or cuddling dogs for us. Once again the spokesperson stressed the importance of adhering to this rule, or else the Fatalis brothers would immediately locate and kill us.

We'd have less than nine days before the mission officially began.

I was barely aware that the meeting was over until Will nudged my shoulder. We then followed the masses outside, back to where we all were before.

At 8 pm, Will came into my bunk room. I was lacing my boots, trying them on for the first time.

"Hey, buddy."

"Sorry, did I interrupt you?"

"Not at all, Will. Is there anything important?"

Will handed over a list of people drafted for the rescue mission, complete with the teams they were assigned to. There were 100 or 200 people of varying backgrounds being recruited or volunteered to participate in, although I was unfamiliar with most of them. Both male and female participants were of equal number, it seemed.

"Okay, so we are assigned to one of the small teams. Miss Olivera will be our leader."

"The evac team, to be precise, Luke. We're going to infiltrate the Fatalis nest, locate as many survivors as we could before the trio notices anything amiss, and get out."

"Uh-huh. And who is this Brad guy in our team?"

"Some high school jock, I reckon. He wore a varsity jacket, and last I saw him, he's hanging out with a bunch of stoned teenagers. They haven't caused trouble yet."

"Well, don't tell me we're trusting our lives to this guy."

"We're not, buddy. Believe me."

As Will excused himself to the bathroom, I stood there in silence, holding the list of conscripted people. I certainly hope that I wouldn't have to depend on those types of high schoolers too much. Jocks or not, if the people I was going to work with could not be relied on to keep my life safe, then I'd be happy to leave them at the trio's mercy.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Ashes.

That was the first thing I saw as our ragtag army arrived in Kansas.

I never thought that I'd come back to America to see something like this after two weeks of staying in Canada.

White ash coated the ruins of the city's building around us like fake snow, reminding me of a nuclear fallout zone. Dead trees lined up the roadway before us like burnt matchsticks. The six-lane road we traveled on was probably the most accurate depiction of an urban warzone I've ever seen; wrecked cars were strewn all over the street, debris like garbage or posters littering available spaces, and corpses of monsters and humans were lain in certain spots, visible if you pay attention close enough. Devastation at its fullest.

"Can you believe this, Luke? It's like the Black Dragons torched everything, either living or not."

"They are fire-breathers, after all. Everything in their immediate area will be reduced to ash and dust, eventually."

Will nodded at my words.

No wonder why the evacuation order for Kansas was issued fairly early. The trio or dragons weren't known for being merciful in their rampage.

Two groups went ahead to scout some destroyed convenience stores across the street. The windows and doors were smashed down, perhaps by looters who thought they could hoard stuff as they made their escape. One store appeared to be relatively intact with some useful goods still in there. Non-perishable foodstuff and small electronic items, mostly. The other store was thoroughly ransacked and devoid of valuable objects.

I looked down to see my boot leaving a deep print on the ash-covered asphalt. The Fatalis trio apparently did their decorating job too well if the ash was that thick. I myself was uncertain if there really were survivors trapped in this city.

"Alright, listen up everyone. We have approximately six hours before the dragons return from their hunt. Our objective is to sneak in, get the survivors, and get them all out."

"Should you encounter any monsters in your way, evading them is your top priority. We're not here to hunt any creature."

"If you encounter other humans who could pose a threat to the mission, you either scare them away or you kill them, got it? We're not cops, and our job is not to arrest criminals."

We all sounded our acknowledgment to the leaders of our respective units. A soldier I was not, but even here I know better than second-guessing my boss' orders. I definitely wouldn't want to spend too much time in a Black Dragon's territory. Will gave me a grim look, acknowledging Olivera and her fellow leaders were right. The dumb jock in our team, however, seemed to pay no heed to the announcement, if his toothy grin is of any indication. If I had to make a bet, the first person to bite the dust among us would be him. That, or his classmates who were waving at him as they followed their teams into the city proper.

Olivera led us through a back alley area, passing an abandoned parking lot, and across an empty warehouse. Once every ten minutes, we'd stop and check the surroundings for signs of danger before moving forward. There were telltale signs of a skirmish occurring here. Who killed who, I'd rather not try to think about it.

Half an hour had passed. So far we had yet to cross path with any monster.

As we marched past a dingy drug store, our comms went active. One of the main teams, currently scouting the area from an office's rooftop, had identified the place where the survivors were likely to hole up in; some sort of underground basement which was connected to a series of service tunnels. Two tunnels had collapsed already. From our current location, our team would have to sneak into a large condominium to gain access to a service tunnel. It was one of the longest tunnels, but the path was relatively straightforward.

"Is the building still far away, ma'am?"

"No, it should be in the next block. Does any of you have a phobia of darkness?"

We all shook our heads. Olivera looked pleased with our strength of character and motioned us to keep going.

True enough, the condominium was only one block away from our position. As we marched closer, I could see the rooftop of the building covered in soot and overgrown plants, probably from an unmaintained hydroponic farm or something. The lower levels of it remained clear of debris or animals, save for mice and small birds.

After searching for a few minutes, Olivera located a back door leading to the building's basement. From there, we should be able to access the service tunnels.

Another comms chatter was heard. Two other teams were about to gain access to their respective service tunnels; one team could enter by going through a hospital's basement, and the other team by breaching into a local police station's underground parking lot.

"Nice job so far. Don't let your guard down. We still have a long way to go."

"Keep us informed, gentlemen. Don't be afraid to scream if you have to."

"Copy that."

Without further ado, we proceeded into the tunnels, hoping to whatever god or deity we believed in that we could finish this quickly.

The trek was free of obstacles, but boy did we get assaulted by all kinds of noises. The walls around us shook every fifteen minutes or so. Hisses, shrieks, and groans echoed in the tunnel as we progressed. We convinced ourselves that the sounds were from broken pipes or monster fights occurring above us, but even the dumb guy couldn't hold on to the lie forever.

Comm chatters would sound once in a while. First, it was a mention of a Silver Rathalos patrolling one end of the area above the ground, next came mentions of 'help' signs cluttered near a tunnel entrance, and then another series of chatters alerted us of a pair of Najaralas mating somewhere in the tunnels. The team that gave the report was unable to advance further unless they set up a distraction for the pair of serpentine monsters.

"Damn it," I muttered.

This was going to be one hell of a fight.

As we pressed onward, I mentally tried to recollect what made Najaralas in the game series difficult to fight. Those snake-like monsters were not venomous, but they had this ability to use their scales as explosive projectiles. By throwing the scales around its potential victims, the Najarala would be able to stun its victims by loud rattling from its tail, which would then caused the thrown scales to explode. The thing was also big and long enough to constrict the victim as real pythons would, and only a coordinated assault from the victim's teammates could break the constriction. One Najarala alone would give novice players a run for their money; two of them might as well be a death sentence.

I glanced at my team members. The leading woman was undaunted and stoic, while Will looked grim and tense. The other guy was instead eager to get into a fight with the Najarala if his anticipatory grin told the truth.

I was going to break up the silence when we hear a telltale rattling.

"Whoa, was that...?"

"The snake monsters. Their nest has to be somewhere nearby."

"Do we get to hunt them, everyone?"

"Absolutely not, you idiot!"

"What's your orders, ma'am?"

"Keep a lookout for them. We gotta find a way around them. Do not engage them directly unless they give chase, and remember, we are not here to hunt them so if they cease pursuit, leave them alone and continue the mission."

Will and I acknowledged Olivera's orders. The other guy simply nodded, but even then I could see a glint of masochism in his eyes. I'd bet my Jagras sword that he would fight the Najaralas head on and get killed as a result. I shook my head in disbelief as we proceeded.

Five minutes in, the rattling became fainter. A comm chatter indicated that a distraction had been set to lure the monsters away.

Ten minutes in, we could hear distant echoes of explosions and gunshots. The distraction team was engaging the Najaralas directly if the noises indicated anything. I hoped they made it through.

Fifteen minutes in, new information came through our radios. One of the Najaralas retreated back into their nest. Other teams were told to expect a possible skirmish with it.

Twenty minutes in, when we were closing in on our destination, a loud rattling reverberated across the tunnel. The second serpentine monster must be nearby.

We all froze in our tracks, scanning our surroundings in an attempt to locate the origin of the rattling sound. To have an idea of where we stood currently, picture a dark underground tunnel with four intersecting paths, all of which were indistinguishable from one another. Our immediate location took the shape of a medium square room full of dust, grime, and dim, flickering fluorescent lights. All of the tunnels branching off from this room were completely lightless, making our attempt to locate the Najarala's location extremely hard.

We were about to ask for an alternative route to the other team when Olivera spotted the Najarala, slithering past one tunnel, apparently unaware that we were pretty close to it. All of us had to put our hands over our mouths just to keep us from screaming, but when the snake monster turned its head around and sighted us by accident, we decided to just screw it and prepared ourselves for a coming pursuit across the dark tunnel network. The creature stood on its long body like a cobra as it opened its mouth and hissed loudly. I fired a warning shot from my rifle to a wall next to it, meant as an intimidation. The Najarala ducked past the bullet and glared at me.

Surprisingly, rather than attacking us right away, the Najarala threw some scales at our direction in a panic before blowing them up with its tail's rattling. We rolled to the side to evade the onslaught of its exploding scales, but when we regained focus and ready to flee, the Najarala already ran away.

Unsurprisingly, given my earlier misgivings, the dumb guy went after it, despite Olivera yelling at him ignore the monster. The goddamn bastard continued to yell at the monster to come back, slowly disappeared from our view.

Will and I stared at each other with poker faces. Well, I guessed only the three of us were left now.

Olivera, quietly cursing, asked the other team if any of us were anywhere nearby the survivors' hideout. A minute passed until a confirmation came through. Yes, our team was only two turns away from the hideout, but the team that broke into the abandoned hospital had successfully gotten there first. Our leader gave a curt affirmation as she led us away from the tunnel that the Najarala slithered past.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"What's the situation, sir?" Olivera inquired.

"We have 170 people in need of extraction, ma'am. A dozen or so of them are little children, and they are suffering from malnutrition."

"Are we able to evacuate them all on time?"

"We'll be likely to fall behind schedule."

"Figures. With our current speed, we may be able to get them out in an hour, tops."

"I predicted so, ma'am. With the exception of those giant snake things, our way back should be clear of any obstacles."

"Let's get moving, then," Olivera said as she shone her flashlight to our would-be refugees.

I shone mine in the same direction. Faces, both dirt-stained and tired, winced at the light beamed on them. Most of these people were comprised of families with missing members. A woman and her children without her husband, an old couple that mourned their missing son, orphaned kids crying over their disappeared parents, you got the idea. Some were on their own, however, having no family or friends to rely on. One or two people I saw among them were non-Americans, either the Canadians we were tasked with rescuing or Asian immigrants with varying levels of English language fluency. I steeled myself, not wanting to shed a tear at the realization of how these innocent people once had a normal life like me.

The mission was expected to conclude in an hour, and our fellow members agreed to speed things up. We couldn't afford to stall around anymore, not even to wait for any volunteer who went missing or lag behind.

Much to our relief, the third extraction team, the most numerous one, had rejoined us and began preliminary preparation to escort everyone present back to the safe zone. Once we left the service tunnels behind, other teams and their found survivors would regroup with ours. There were 17 team members in the tunnels, and we had 170 people to protect. Among them, no more than thirty people were willing to take up arms to bolster the guards' numbers.

This might be the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

We were ready to move out, but we're going to need a plan.

Plan A, we went out in groups of nine or ten people. Each group must possess a sufficient amount of light sources and objects with which to defend its members, even if they only had 2x4 wood planks. Each group must walk in an orderly manner, no lagging but no sprinting unless danger was nearby. The group would be accompanied by two escorts.

Plan B, everyone marched together, keeping people with guns or other weapons at the front and the back, whereas children and elderly people would be kept in the middle. As with Plan A, nobody would be allowed to lag or run ahead for fear of getting lost in this lightless maze of a service tunnel.

The senior volunteers debated on which plan would be our best bet. Much to our relief, the argument took only two minutes until a decision was declared. We'd commence Plan A, but rather than escorting one civilian group at a time, two groups would be marched together to the surface. Three or four people per group must wield a solid object for self-defense purposes. Since the rescue operation was spearheaded by Canadian people, the Canadian refugees among the survivors got subtle yet noticeable special treatment.

A message had been sent to the teams waiting for us aboveground, telling them to expect friendlies and evacuees.

Within the next five minutes, the first two groups of survivors were already on their way out. Some kids had to be carried on the backs of their parents.

Olivera, Will, and I got assigned to the last two groups, a weird collection of broken family units, shady lonely people, and foreigners that looked out of place in this gloomy place. I took a minute to examine their faces one by one.

Another five minutes passed, and two more groups were gone with their escorts.

A brief comm chatter warned us of a lone Silver Rathalos scouting the skies above the ruined city. Will and I traded nervous glances as we knew that our rifles and small sword wouldn't do much damage to a Silver Los should we got caught in a skirmish.

Another five minutes passed, and two more groups were gone with their escorts.

As I walked around, I noticed that my left boot laces became untied. I stopped walking to lace it up.

That's when I heard a rattling sound.

Najaralas, I thought, as I got up and signaled Olivera of an impending threat. Apparently, the other team members recognized the sound, too, as they began scanning the tunnels for signs of the monster. Flashlights shone left and right as we searched for the origin of the sound, beaming them at the roof and the tunnels. The survivors were nervous, asking us in a hushed tone whether a hostile entity was somewhere nearby as they grew agitated by their situation. One of the team members clued into their fearful reaction and asked if he could send the next two groups away right now. I glanced at them as they discussed the best way to deal with the current situation.

A second rattling sound was heard, although it was nowhere closer than the first.

We shouldn't be stalling in this place.

Unexpectedly, the senior team members allowed three groups to move forward, accompanied by four escorts. I didn't know if that was a good choice or not. While it did speed up the evacuation process, the number of team members that could stall the Najaralas during this segment went down to seven people. Only Will, me, and another guy that I forgot to ask his name were in possession of monster hunting-worthy weapons if we were to fight the snake monsters head-on.

I guessed fate wasn't really shining on-

"LOOK OUT!"

Damn it, one Najarala had discovered us!

I jumped aside as the monster slammed its tail on us. My flashlight illuminated its maw, gaping wide in anticipation of our retaliation. It knew that its surprise attack failed to injure anyone, so it pulled its tail aside and stood tall to lunge at us.

Olivera was the first to act. She fired three times at the monster's open mouth, staggering it long enough for us to get the remaining survivors to run for the exit while the five of us held it off. The Najarala sensed their loud movement and began to try and break our little barricade. Only the five of us were all that stood between it and its stampeding buffet. I first tried to use my Jagras blades and rushed forward to attack, followed by Will and the unnamed hunter guy wielding a small hatchet. My first strikes were aimed at the Najarala's belly, wanting to see if we could bleed it to death, but alas, the dual blades could only create shallow cuts between its lime green scales. Once, twice, thrice, I assaulted the Najarala while its attention was focused on someone else, but I couldn't significantly injure it.

Frustrated, I threw one blade at the monster's head by accident. To my surprise, however, the blade became lodged under the Najarala's lower jaw, only coming off after the thing thrashed around for a minute. The serpentine creature lunged at me twice in anger; the second bite attack nearly got me had only Will didn't shove me aside and charge at the monster while it was distracted.

Alright, so I lost one Jagras blade. I have no idea what to do with the other one.

Will was no better than me. Even with his upgraded Jaggi dual blades, every cut and slash marks he left at the Najarala's scaly body were mostly superficial wounds. The monster's constant movement made it harder to perform a focused attack. The hunter with the hatchet seemed to deal plenty of damage, but he concentrated his assault on the monster's armored tail and neglected to try and attack the Najarala's other body parts.

The Najarala slammed its tail again, this time hitting a wall next to me and breaking a lamp. I could hear the hatchet guy yelping in pain; he must've been knocked down by the attack, it seemed.

As I readjusted my vision, I could barely hear another rattling sound echoing from somewhere else in the tunnels...

"Damn it all, we can't fight it like this! We gotta go right now!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"We have to slow it down first!" I yelled as the monster's tail flew right over my head. At my words, the unnamed hunter pulled out something from underneath his vest and threw it at the feet of the Najarala. A smoke grenade, I thought excitedly, as the grenade released a thick grey cloud seconds upon hitting the ground. Olivera and her companion told us to catch up with the fleeing survivors while we still had the time to flee. The monster hissed in agitation as it lost sight of its prey, but we decided to not slow down in our hasty flight just in case it suddenly caught up with us.

Left, forward, left, right, forward, we all did our best to follow the path to safety and hopefully caught up with the people we sent ahead of us. For a moment, I was drowning with the thought of having those people sent to their deaths in this gloomy place, but I was glad to be proven wrong when we came across six team members from above the ground, who had extracted the previous refugee groups without incident and were coming back into the service tunnels for the last groups, including our team. I saw four of them checking the survivors one by one to ensure that nobody was left behind. The fifth guy was talking on the radio, alerting those waiting outside the tunnels that we're about to finish the rescue mission soon enough.

The sixth guy was... Aha, it was Jason!

"I knew you guys would make it!"

"What can we say? We're professional MonHun players!"

Jason lightly punched me on my shoulder before signaling everyone else to move forward.

I counted our journey back taking a quarter an hour until we could see telltale signs of an exit; apparently, the exit we headed to was located at the basement parking lot of a hotel. As we continued walking, Jason spoke to me about how the guys above ground managed to maneuver their convoy to this place by taking a long way around. It was a good choice too, as when the guys set up their temporary base here, there were a dozen buses or trucks that we could utilize to get everyone away from here. We herded the people to those vehicles, carefully counting them to make sure nobody was left behind. Jason also warned me that once we drove out of here, we wouldn't be able to make a return trip.

Fuck, of course we couldn't do that. The Fatalis trio might notice something amiss if we tried.

One by one the vehicles carrying our refugees left the underground parking lot. Comm chatters between ours and those waiting outside of the hotel confirmed that our way back to Canada should be clear and straightforward. Still, we were advised to keep a lookout for a group of Raths circling the sky above us.

Soon enough, my bus would be going with the rest of-

"HOLY FUCK, IT'S THOSE SNAKES!"

I turned around just in time to see the two Najaralas bursting through the tunnel entrance. They just wouldn't quit! Mind you, the doors to the service tunnels were blocked by a pile of wooden crates and a minivan, and those bastards managed to crash right through them! One of them had its mouth stained with dried blood...

"That's it, we're getting out of here!"

"Don't stick around, we gotta go now!"

"Slow them down by any means necessary!"

I unsheathed my firearm and fired the whole clip to the bigger one, the one that still had my Jagras blade stuck under its chin. One bullet dislodged the blade, seemingly distracting the Najarala, but otherwise, the thing was unfazed by the shots, so I decided to just run to my bus before it got away. Sad to know that I only have one very brief moment of respite before some woman screamed her head off.

"THEY'RE COMING AFTER US!"

Welp, she's right. Fucking snakes were running on their tiny legs to get us!

Those with access to firearms hurriedly moved to the back of the bus and broke the window so they could have a clear shot at the monsters, even though their potshots often missed the targets. During this heated moment, I just realized something; the layers of the parking lot did not go straight up to the surface, instead they circled around a ramp with low railings on each layer. No wonder why the Najaralas were able to catch up! They couldn't beat us in a straight-up chase, but here, they had a small field advantage over us.

One Najarala lunged forth, missing the bus by a few centimeters and very nearly biting a man's arm. I scanned the environment quickly, trying to find something that could hold the monsters off until we could stay clear of the basement.

That's when I saw a fire extinguisher mounted on a wall just a few meters from us.

I still have one more bullet to spare. Counting the distance between the mounted extinguisher and the bus, I move to the other side so I could hopefully hit it with one bullet. Twenty meters, fifteen meters, ten meters now... Just a little bit closer...

As soon as we passed it, one of the Najaralas lunged forward, its fangs were bared with unbridled hunger. I muttered my prayers as I pulled the trigger, hoping that it would hit the extinguisher and blow up spectacularly...

Yes! It worked! The tank exploded next to the Najaralas, sending a wave of air that knocked both of them to an abandoned car. As they desperately tried to untangle themselves, the bus managed to catch up with the rest of the refugee convoy without encountering further impediments. People were laughing and crying at the same time, having difficulty to realize the mortal peril that they just went through some ten minutes ago.

I myself had to put a hand to my face as Will pointed out how I didn't stop grinning.

I wouldn't bother explaining our trip back to our base in Canada. Long story short, some of the Americans we rescued simply asked to be dropped off at small towns and municipalities that we passed by during the trip back, while others were fine with the prospect of living in Canada.

"That means they've finally gotten tired of being Americans."

"Can you blame them, honestly?"

"I'm not blaming them. I find it funny that they actually agreed to come along with us."

Yeah, I think having extra people to keep the hunter's base running smoothly would be more useful. I was slowly dozing off until I remembered about the Jagras blade that I lost during the mission. Now I only had one left.

I guess I'd have to go hunting for materials soon or later.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Ah, the smell of morning air. I could never get enough of this.

Today, I woke up quite early, much to my surprise since I was still recovering from that hellish mission.

It had been nine days since we completed the mission, and we were all quite busy organizing the refugees so that they could have a semblance of normal life.

So far, those people were largely compliant to orders.

Nobody was making trouble, despite the hard work they had to do in order to set up more housing and sharing food rations. New shops and workplaces sprang up next to their new houses, complete with a new gateway leading to other towns outside the base so they could trade more stuff with other people.

I wouldn't say this place was cluttered and dirty, but it certainly was made haphazardly. Structures located near the exit gates and the center of the compound were the tidiest of all since the roads and vital building locations had to be easily traversed and spotted by the residents here. Everything else was pretty much built on any open spaces as long as it stayed clear of the important roads and structures, and as long as it produced little pollution. We had to keep this place free from piles of garbage or spoiled food, or else the smell would lure in wild animals and monsters.

Seeing that I was left with no urgent duties to attend, I used the fourth day going out to the forests surrounding the base. I went out hunting for Jagras, obviously, which was why I often carried my big sword around. Long story short, I did found some Jagras to kill, as well as one particularly queer monster that did not exist in the games; a mix between an alligator, a Seltas, and a gecko that would be more at home in Spore than Monster Hunter, dark green in color and quite nasty in temper. It was slightly hard to kill due to its habit to roll like an Armadillo, preventing me from targeting its soft underbelly, but after an hour trying to defeat it, I managed to drove my sword into its gaping maw, killing it instantly. The fucking beast tried to cover me in some kind of sticky goo. I could only guess that the goo was its primary means of hunting, to keep the monster's prey stuck in place as it delivered a killing bite.

When I handed over my kills to the guys at a small forensic lab in the base, the folks there got fairly excited at the sight of a new creature, especially one that was nonexistent from the game series. I decided to leave the unidentified green monster in the lab and head to the nearest smithy to forge a new Jagras blade to compensate for the previous missing one. Sadly, I was told that the materials I gathered would be more appropriate to create a bone-and-iron shield, provided I paid extra money so they could buy some high-quality iron to make the shield.

Holy fuck.

That was yesterday, and right now I felt uncertain of the smith's promise to create a shield to compliment my lone Jagras blade or my bigger sword for that matter.

I had nothing better to do, except going to the bathroom, get dressed in my casual outfit, and make some instant noodles. The sun was rising as I ate breakfast, and the light gently illuminated my trustworthy sword, laid on top of my bunk bed.

My first thought was to clean it up and sharpen it.

Sure, I might probably need to go out again, so why not? I remembered that last evening, I purchased some sort of whetstone that could be used to sharpen a hunting weapon, even if the result might be a little sloppy. Will was still sleeping like a baby on his bed, so I chose to bring the sharpening tool and my sword outside, preferably to a quiet place.

I found a nice place to work on the sharpening task, I supposed. A secluded bench under an oak tree where people seldom passed through was my chosen spot.

The air was nice. Despite the weather being cold and snowing a little bit, the sun shone brightly to counteract the cold wind. I sat down on the bench, delicately maintaining my trustworthy sword as I watched people coming and going, moving to places to carry out their daily lives.

The sword had dried blood all over it. Cleaning it up might take some time.

Gradually, I became aware that a person nearby was listening to a radio, likely from a small park behind me. The radio announced some news in English and French, but its fluctuating sound volume, perhaps caused by less-than-ideal speakers, prevented me from overhearing the news clearly.

"_Citizens who are living anywhere close to monster nests are advised to... to minimize chances of conflict..._"

"_...implore people to not leave food outside as to avoid attracting..._"

"_Illicit trade of monster shells, scales, claws, and horns... allegedly being sold up to US$750 apiece in Texas and..._"

Well, there's that, I supposed. If the news was of any indication, many people were profiteering from illegally-sold monster parts like Rathalos scales or Lagiacrus electric crystals, and seeing how most of the monsters present in our world were bound by our laws of physics, hunting them down seemed to be easily done by pretty much anyone who knew the basic techniques of hunting. If anything, I bet the second news was connected to the third; people knowingly setting fresh food in open spaces as a trap so that foolish monsters would be effortlessly caught and sold to the black market, either as pets of to be slaughtered. Then again, it is our world, not Monster Hunter world...

Now that the dried blood had been scrubbed away, I could start sharpening and polishing my sword. The tools I brought with me were not top-grade stuff, but they did the job nicely.

The radio was still blaring from the tiny park.

I craned my neck backward a bit so I could hear more news from the radio.

"..._performing long-distance observations on monsters deemed too dangerous to be approached... including elemental creatures reportedly titled 'Elder Dragons' by witnesses..._"

"_Some of the more benign creatures apparently don't mind... have been seen to be indifferent toward human presence, if not acting slightly friendly, as if acknowledging..._"

"... _reports coming from the US, at least a number of monsters were hostile enough to try and take over... estimated death toll reached up to thousands of citizens..._"

Observing Elder Dragons? Unless you knew how to do it safely, attempting to do so would probably fall into the 'suicide mission' category.

After half an hour of listening to that beat up radio, I decided to not force my ears to hear any more news from it. I examined the result of my sharpening job one more time, which seemed to be above-average, before deciding to leave the bench and back to my bunk.

The time of the day should be at 11:00 pm, as there were more people walking all over the place. I wasn't entirely sure whether these people were continuing their jobs at different places or taking a break by visiting the shops nearby. One thing that I knew was that the construction of new buildings at the compound was 90 percent done, so people had fewer duties to attend to. I'd like to check out the new buildings when I got the time.

I was approaching the door to my residence when I caught Will and Jason from the corner of my eyes.

They were whispering, but not the 'gossiping-behind-one's-back' type. They looked agitated and concerned, seemingly afraid of something beyond their control. That behavior was not normal for them, so as they began wandering away from the crowded main road, I tailed them quietly.

"That can't be real, right?!"

"Of course not, not even the older players remember anything about that thing!"

Huh, what thing? And what about it that made them scared?

"I've checked our collective journals the other day. There was no mention of any draconic monster that is red-scaled, six-limbed, and Smaug-like..."

"I know that already. The guys said that too... yet for some fucking reason..."

"My mind continuously told me that the red dragon thing is in the game, WAS in the game..."

"The fifth game, at that."

What?! What the hell is this red dragon they were talking about? Were they talking about the Crimson Fatalis or some other monster that was never present in the games?

"I wish somebody back then was clever enough to try and snap a picture of it. We might be able to pinpoint the monster's true identity if we have concrete evidence."

"I think it's not the most pressing issue right now."

"Why?"

"Three or four of the witnesses claimed that the red monster was seen standing tall before the Black, the Crimson, and the White in a burned park as if commanding them. And that's bullshit; nowhere in the games' lore did the Fatalis trio bowed down to any creature. You know things are going to hell fast if something otherworldly holds the Fatalis trio in its hands."

"Yes, well... This is reality, not a video game."

Pardon me?! Just what kind of monster could possibly control the three most dangerous monsters in the entire Monster Hunter series? If only they talked about this monster in apparent jest, I'd probably chalked them up as goofing with each other. So far, Will and Jason only mentioned very little of this mystery monster's bodily descriptions. Let's see, we have a creature that was six-limbed, meaning that it had four legs and two wings, plus red scales, and looking like Smaug from The Hobbit movie. Jason even said that the thing was otherworldly.

Otherworld...

The only monster with otherworldly characteristics was Xeno'Jiiva from Monster Hunter World, and the damn thing wasn't even red in color! If anything, Xeno was obviously alien-like in appearance, not red like Smaug.

Could it be... a possible subspecies? A potential roster for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne had only the game came out instead of disappearing?

I was too stunned by the revelation to realize that my friends had gone further into the city. By the time I regained my senses, my stomach growled in hunger, compelling me to visit a nearby restaurant.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Over the following weeks and months, small groups of people were being sent to the neighboring town, villages, and cities. Officially, these people were being sent to trade goods with people outside of the hunter's compound.

But I know it wasn't true.

The administrators must've received reports related to the mysterious red monster, and probably sent people out to see whether or not other settlements had witnessed the same entity.

Ever since my friends talked about this red dragon thing in hushed tone months ago, stories of a devilish-looking monster began to surface. No one was talking about it loudly, but try to go into any out-of-the-way bar or restaurant and you'd find a bunch of people sitting in a faraway corner mentioning things like 'metallic-sounding cry' and 'gleaming red eyes' without spoiling too much detail. I asked Jason the other day if he's heard anything related to it, and he just said the information was classified. Not even Will could tell me what was really happening.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and as we moved on with our lives, we'd hear a person or two gossiping about something big and red skulking within the wilderness. I got curious and decided to investigate the matter on my own.

I thought it'd be easy to get people to talk, but in reality, they were too shy to open up about their experiences. My sources were mostly chatty old women and bar visitors. They tend to be not very trustworthy.

From what I could gather, these people would go out with some cargo to trade with the neighboring townsfolk. If they left at dawn, they might sometimes see a red creature with two black horns lurking on a rocky hill. If they left at dusk, this red creature might be seen retreating into the woods, keeping its gleaming eyes on the traveling merchants. In both cases, this thing was standing too far away for people to make out any significant detail.

The civilians were not particularly concerned by the news, but us hunters became greatly suspicious when it came to this monster.

Why would a monster kept an eye for our base when it could've invaded any human settlement in its vicinity?

The older hunters and the base's administrators, after some deliberation, agreed to organize scouting missions to the towns and villages in the hopes of gathering more data on the unidentified red creature.

At first, the scouting missions were fairly easy. The townsfolk were more interested in getting their trade routes secured. They might also request some rare materials to be procured or have pest monsters frolicking in certain areas be cleared out. I didn't join on those missions at first, preferring to help with cataloging the participants of the missions and their activities; who did what activity, when, where, and how much data they've collected, that sort of thing. A month after, Will convinced me to go out and join him.

"Ok, ok, what do you want me to do?"

"We're short on hunters for hire as of now. Care to join, Luke?"

"It depends; what are we hunting today?"

"Let's see... A few villages at the North needed our help in securing the roads leading to the big town at the West of the base."

"Anything else besides this security job, Will? Do we need to pick a flower or two?"

"No, not really. If we don't mind, the villagers also asked us to buy seeds from the big town. We won't have to pick any wildflowers."

"Sounds great. Count me in."

Well crap, I silently cussed as we went on the job the next day. On the outside, I put a big smile as a jeep convoy carried us all over the terrain as we passed through places, trying to look upbeat as I got some opportunity to find stuff for myself. Inwardly, I had grim thoughts as I surveyed whatever landscape we drove by, be it towns, villages, or wilderness.

The road we were asked to survey and clean up from monsters were no different from the average asphalt road. It had four lanes, white markings interspersed with yellow markings on certain intersections, and no street lights except on turns that led to inhabited areas. The road, if our data could be trusted was roughly 9 miles long, maybe even longer, snaking between hills and plateaus as it connected one settlement to another. Due to street lights being scarce, we had to conduct our mission as soon as the sun rose and be back at the compound once it set. The road, while far from being clean, was rarely visited by monsters as far as we could tell.

The jobs that were handed to us were simple. We would be asked to deliver some stuff to one place then go to other places to retrieve either more goods or payment. Good thing we were able to buy gas for our jeeps, otherwise we'd be in deep trouble until someone lent us a hand.

"What do you think, Luke?"

"Hunters for hire, my ass. Why the hell are we doing delivery services right now, when we could go beat a big lizard or two?"

"Relax, I'm sure something's bound to check us out for dinner soon."

My buddy wasn't wrong about that last part. Past midday, a monster that looked like Yian Kutku came and tried to loot the goods we were going to bring back to a town. This thing was definitely bigger and different than a normal Kutku, having thin feathers along its back and tail, a greenish-yellow coloration, and it spat ice balls instead of fire. My first thought as I saw it was that the monster could be a variant monster of the sort.

The jeeps carrying trade goods were commanded to keeping driving away as the last two jeeps, with me in one of them, pulled over and tried to take on the Ice Kutku. It was a good thing that there were six so us; me with my steel sword, Will with his big Jagras gun, and four other hunters brandishing various weaponry. The Ice Kutku was alone and looked intimidated, but held its ground.

The monster spat an icy glob at a female hunter among us. She blocked it with her shield as I rushed past her. I raised my sword high and brought it down hard on the monster's head. What a mistake! The Ice Kutku's head was well armored and all I did was pissing it off.

I turned around and ran. In my panic to get away from the damn thing, Will and another person with hunting guns showered the monster's gaping maw with piercing pellets, staggering it long enough for me to get away to safety.

The beast was not done, however. It took to the sky and made several clawing gestures to knock us down. The female hunter got hit once, while her friend got briefly disarmed by the attack.

I fished around in my pocket to try and find something to stop the Ice Kutku from clawing madly through the air. My fingers brushed past a metallic object, which I identified as a flash grenade. Damn, how stupid of me! Of course, a couple of days ago, I purchased that flash grenade in the hopes that I'd never have to use it. Screw it, I thought, now's possibly the best time to use the thing.

"Fire in the hole!" I shouted while gesturing to the other hunters to seek cover immediately.

I pulled the trigger, lobbed the grenade straight to the Ice Kutku's face, and covered my ears and shut my eyes tight as the item exploded in a brilliant flash of light followed by a ringing sound.

When I opened my eyes and ears, the beast had fallen to the ground, writhing drunkenly as it desperately tried to regain its footing. I glanced at my fellow hunters to find them recovering from the flash grenade's effect faster than the monster. Seeing a window of opportunity to counterattack, the hunters charged back at the still-dazed monster, hacking away at its tail or firing pellets after pellets at its head. Will, strangely, decided to just unload a pellet or two before running in my direction.

"You ok, pal?!"

"I've been better. Sorry I didn't warn you."

"That's fine. By the way, do you mind if I lampshade a few things here?"

"What are you talking about?"

Shrieks of pain accompanied by a big splatter of blood caught our attention. One of our fellow hunters managed to sever the monster's tail and had secured it before continuing the assault.

"Isn't it weird that we have an ice-breathing Kutku coming right at us from nowhere?!"

"I know, right? Where does this thing come from? How is it even breathing ice instead of fire?"

"Call me paranoid, but..."

"You're assuming this Ice Kutku to be connected to the strange red monster people talked about, am I right?"

Will nodded gravely at my words. We turned around just in time to see the female hunter being blasted away by a powerful ice blast. We glanced at each other again, shaking our heads, before we came into assistance to our hunting partners.

I jumped directly at the beast's face. Once again, I tried to carve a deep wound or two at the monster's head, but my sword simply ricocheted when making contact with its armored head. Except when the tip of my sword carved a thin line on the monster's brow...

It worked! The monster became staggered! I then seek other means of incapacitating the Ice Kutku as it regained balanced and blocked a partner's hatchet with its beak. The monster threw him off and began beating its wings to try and claw at us from midair again. That's when I stabbed its wing membrane. Oops.

I did not intend to strike the monster by its flapping wing, but when my sword impaled its wing membrane, I realized I could use this to my advantage.

I pulled the sword down as hard as I could, and...

"Good work, buddy!"

"The Kutku's wing is damaged! It can't fly away from us now!"

"Now's the chance, charge!"

I fell to the ground a bit hard. The Kutku fell even harder and judging from the sound of ripping I made with my sword, the monster's wing must be severely damaged, preventing it from flying again. I rolled out of the way as my partners all jumped at the chance to finish off the beast for good. Good thing, too, as the beast was as annoying as the Yian Garuga from the games' older generation. We all spent a quarter an hour as we relentlessly deployed whatever attacks and weaponized objects we had at the thing until it fell unmoving.

Mission accomplished, lady and gentlemen! One dead Ice Kutku would be ready to bring back home!

We all fell sitting on the ground, catching our breathing and laughing at our unprecedented success. For some reason, we all thought this encounter to be a High-Rank mission or something. We were then contemplating on how we should load the monster's carcass into our jeeps when the rest of the convoy from before came back. Whoa, they actually came back to pick us up!

I laughed a little harder. Will did too, apparently realizing what the convoy's expression might be when they saw us taking down a big monster. They'd most likely complain about the smell, though.


End file.
